The Grey Wolves of Eriboll by David M. Hird

There's something rather wonderful about a book that covers the ground so well
that no-one will
ever be able to write another book on the same subject. Truly definitive
books are very rare, but "The Grey Wolves of Eriboll" by David M.
Hird is certainly one of them. We didn't read the first edition of
this book, published in 2010, but it seems that while the author did
a good job the first time around, interest in and publicity about
his book opened up access to a number of new sources of information,
allowing this "updated and expanded" new edition to be even better.
This book is essential reading for anyone interested in the naval
history of World War Two, or in the history of northern Scotland.

The Battle of the Atlantic was fought throughout World War Two, and on
the German side by far the most effective weapon was the U-boat, the
naval submarine, which could range right across the Atlantic (and
beyond) in search of Allied ships to attack and destroy. The fortunes
of the battle ebbed and flowed, but for periods in 1940/1 and in 1942,
remembered on the German side as "the happy times" there was a real
threat that the actions of German U-boats in cutting off the supply
of vital supplies might
bring Britain to its knees.

With the end of World War Two came the question of how to manage U-boats
still on active service, whose response to orders by the German high
command to surrender might range from compliant to simply disbelieving.
Planning for this event on the allied side had begun, incredibly,
a year earlier, and "The
Grey Wolves of Eriboll" looks at this operation from every angle, with
a particular (though not exclusive) emphasis on the role played by
Loch Eriboll, a large and exceptionally remote sea-loch towards the
western end of the north coast of Scotland.

Today's Loch Eriboll is
by turns beautiful and bleak, largely depending on the weather, but
despite road improvements over the past 70 years (and the popularity
of the "North Coast 500" driving route) it remains remote. For a short
period in May 1945, Loch Eriboll became
the place where surrendering German U-boats were met and boarded by
Allied naval personnel, and where they were inspected and rendered
safe, before being escorted south for further processing at
Kyle of Lochalsh. In
the event this was an almost wholly peaceful process. No violent conflict
arose, and - unlike with the surrendered German fleet in
Scapa Flow after
World War One - there was no attempt by their crews to scuttle the
captured vessels. Those taking part at the time had no idea there
would be such a peaceful outcome, and being the first on board an
armed enemy submarine whose crew might be intent on mass suicide must have felt a very
high-risk job. This vital operation was so fleeting that no shore
facilities were built, and there is nothing at
Loch Eriboll to
show that the events described in this book ever took place.

As we suggest in our opening paragraph, David M. Hird has done a simply
magnificent job in covering the surrender of the U-boats from every
conceivable angle. He draws very extensively on primary sources; as
well as on official reports and the personal notes and recollections
of those who took part, on both sides; on newspaper reports, and
on previously published material. As a result he has been able to
provide potted histories of the U-boats involved, and of the Allied
escort vessels and other notable participants (including Hitler's
personal yacht); he covers the careers of notable U-boat commanders;
he details the operation at Loch Eriboll, and the later handling of
U-boats surrendering in Norway by Allied vessels in
Scapa Flow. He
also looks at the processing that took place at
Kyle of Lochalsh,
at the subsequent storage of the U-boats in Loch Ryan and in Northern
Ireland, and of the operation to put most of the U-boats beyond further
use by sinking them in deep water out in the Atlantic. Perhaps most fascinatingly
of all, he looks at some of the myths and legends that have built up around
the surrender of the U-boats, and convincingly separates fact from the British
propaganda that sometimes muddied the waters.